In the first ever circumpolar study of contaminants in people, the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme analysed blood samples from mothers in ten regions of the arctic. The chemicals studied are highly persistent, accumulate in fatty tissues and can transfer from the mother to her fetus in the womb or her child during breast-feeding.

Because they are not easily excreted or metabolised, these chemicals become concentrated in animals higher up the food chain -- a process known as bio-accumulation. The high levels of contamination found in the women of the eastern Canadian Arctic and western Greenland reflects their diet of sea mammals fatty fish, and perhaps eggs from seabirds.

Total DDT is DDT plus DDE. DDT is a pesticide which is broken down to DDE in humans, animals and the environment. DDT mimics oestrogen and DDE counteracts with male hormones. They can affect reproduction, development, the nervous system, and cause cancer. In the western Arctic DDEdominates, indicating that it has accumulated in the food chain.

Sen's Nobel money for social projects in India, Bangladesh

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has decided to divide his prize money of $400,000 between India and Bangladesh on a 3:1 basis for carrying out developmental activities. Sen set up the Pratichi Trust -- named after his family's home in Santiniketan -- headquartered in Boston with the money he won for the Nobel Prize in economics in 1998. The trust will have its subsidiaries in the two countries -- Pratichi (India), and Pratichi (Bangladesh) -- which will deal with problems of illiteracy, health and gender bias.

In a statement, Sen said that to begin with Pratichi (Bangladesh) will focus on gender bias and women's empowerment while the trust's branch in India would work on development of primary education. The economist hails from what is now Bangladesh by ancestry while he has spent his early life in West Bengal.

Sen has ruled out setting up of new primary schools to achieve histarget as he felt the funds were inadequate for the purpose. Instead, the trust will endeavour to bring about a "qualitative change" in primary education management in India, he said. Sen's brand of welfare economics lays emphasis on social factors like basic education and healthcare, which he feels are stepping stones to a healthy national economy. Referring to an independent report on primary education in India, Sen said its findings that primary education programmes failed in the country mainly due to organisational inefficiency were true. Sen said his trust's Indian arm will work to tide over the organisational inadequacies of such primary education programmes.Though the trust will not directly involve itself in opening educational institutions, it will complement the efforts of the government in doing so.

WB loan for Bangla fisheries project

The World Bank has approved a loan of $28 million and a grant of $5 million from its Global Environment Facility for Bangladesh's Fourth Fisheries Projectto increase environmentally-friendly and sustainable fish and shrimp production. The total project costs are $60.8 million, to which the Bangladesh government will contribute $9.3 million and Britain $15.5 million.A $28 million equivalent interest-free International Development Association (IDA) credit is provided on standard terms with 40 years to maturity and 10 years grace. The beneficiaries will also contribute $3 million to the project costs. The IDA is a concessionary lending agency of the World Bank.

"At full operation, the project will account for about 22,000 tonnes of incremental fish production and an additional 2,500 tonnes of shrimp each year," says Benson Ateng, senior economist in the Bank's South Asia Rural Development Unit.

The fisheries industry is vital in Bangladesh, accounting for about 10 per cent of agricultural gross domestic product (GDP), three per cent of GDP, eight per cent of total export earnings and a major sources of the country's protein intake. It employs almost twomillion full-time fishermen and 12 million people working part-time.

In order to protect the Ganges-Brahmaputra flood-plain, a wetland of international importance, the project mainstreams aquatic biodiversity conservation within the day-to-day activities of fisheries and related sectors.